


A Christmas Eve Angel

by Tastethatcake



Series: Free! Holiday Collection [3]
Category: Free!
Genre: AU, Christmas, Holidays, It's a Wonderful Life, M/M, Sorta sad, haru fights a lil with makoto but only a lil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-10
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 05:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tastethatcake/pseuds/Tastethatcake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a Wonderful Life- Free! edition. Haru has a fight with Makoto and starts to wonder what his value to the group is. Luckily, an angel visits to help show him what his life would be like if Haru's friends never met him. The third part in my Free! holiday series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Christmas Eve Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Warning- I don't use honorifics.

“Haru, I... want to move to Tokyo with my family.”

Haru felt his stomach drop. He stared at Makoto without saying a word, his lips parted slightly with a crude mixture of surprise and horror.

“I’m sorry, Haru... but my family needs me. The twins want to move to a big city, and-”  
“No.” Haru said softly.  
“What?”  
“No. You can’t move to Tokyo. The swim team needs you.” Haru said softly.  
“Nagisa can be the team captain. You’ll just need another member to join. You’ll be fine with me gone.”  
“No, we won’t!” Haru replied, his voice louder. “I need you.”  
“Haru, you’ll be fine! You have Nagisa, Rei, Gou, and Rin!”  
Haru slammed his hand down on the countertop, startling Makoto. “They don’t mean anything. I need you!”  
“What are you so upset about? I can still text you from Tokyo.”  
“You don’t need me, do you? You’ll be perfectly fine in Tokyo without me. You probably won’t even miss me.”  
“What?! Haru, that’s not true!” Tears were forming in his eyes.  
“Yeah, it is. You don’t need me. The swim team doesn’t need me.”  
“Haru, no...” Makoto’s voice was barely a whisper.  
Haru looked away, his dark hair covered up his eyes. “I think you should leave.” His voice was quiet again.  
“What? It’s Christmas Eve, Haru!”  
“Leave.”

Makoto said nothing. His face contorted with pain, his eyebrows drawing together and tears escaping his eyes. He turned and walked towards the door, letting a blast of frigid winter air in as he looked back at Haru. Haru turned away and Makoto left, slamming the door loudly behind him.

Anger pulsed threw Haru’s veins, causing his vision to blur and his hands to clench up. It was true... his friends didn’t need him. The only thing he was good for was swimming. He didn’t offer to help his friends with their problems, or talk to them when they cried. He was utterly useless.

It was late, and Haru’s body moved seemingly without command, robotically taking him to his room. He lay down on his bed, his tears creating a wet spot on his pillowcase. The clutter of emotions he was feeling were tiring him out. He barely noticed as he fell asleep, roiling thoughts fading away as his tiredness overcame him.

He was jolted awake by a tapping sound by the window. Haru quickly sat up and and looked outside. Near the bottom of the glass, peaking in he saw... Nagisa?

Nagisa’s was grinning and knocking on the glass, gesturing for Haru to come over. A couple things were weird about this... the first was that it was the middle of the night and no time for visitors. The second was that Haru’s room was on the second floor.

Haru slipped out of bed and walked to the window. Nagisa pulled himself up and Haru finally got a good look at him. He was wearing a long robe that looked more like bedsheets, and he had a circlet made of twigs resting atop his golden blonde hair. Most importantly, he had long feathery wings, gleaming white in the dark. They were huge, stretching out past Haru’s view from the other side of the window. This can’t be real, he thought to himself.  
“Well? Are you going to open the window or not?” Nagisa asked, his voice muffled through the glass. 

Haru shook his head, but quickly unlatched the window. Snow and cold air blew in as Nagisa pushed himself through the opening, moving in sideways so that his wings would fit. As he slipped off of the window ledge, Haru quickly shut the window again and turned around. He didn’t say anything as he stared at Nagisa, who was brushing snow off of his wings and hair.  
“Um.. Nagisa?”  
“Hi, Haru!”  
“What are you doing here... half naked and wearing wings?”  
Nagisa laughed, a light tinkling noise. “Haru, silly... you’re dreaming!”  
Haru didn’t reply and instead looked around, seeing if anything else in this dream world was different.  
“You’re dreaming, but I’m still real! See, I’m an angel!” Nagisa planted his hands on his hips proudly and fluttered his wings, knocking over a plastic toy on the shelf behind him.  
“Uh...”  
“Pretty exciting, huh! I’m in your dreams to be your guide! See, you’ve been pretty down on yourself lately. You think that you’re worthless to your friends. So I’ve made it my personal mission to show you what life would be like for your friends if you never existed!”  
Haru just blinked at him. “Okay.”  
“What, you believe me? Just like that?”  
“It’s a dream. It’s not real.”  
“Nooo, it’s not like that!” Nagisa said, grabbing Haru’s hand. “This isn’t real as in real life, but I’m real and what I’m going to show you would be real if you weren’t around.”  
Haru pulled his hand away and shrugged.  
“So... you’ll come with me?”  
“I don’t have much choice. You’re an angel.”  
“Yay! That’s the spirit! Let’s go, then.” Nagisa grasped Haru’s shoulders and fluttered his wings. Instead of flying away, what looked like a thick layer of fog surrounded them. It sparkled with every colour imaginable. It cleared, and Haru looked around. They weren’t in his room anymore, and instead they appeared to be on a lawn outside of a big building. There was a group of men a ways away from them, all of them currently howling and hooting at a passing woman.  
“Come here, Haru... it’s our first stop!” Nagisa pulled Haru forward towards the group, and as they approached Haru realized that one of the men was Rin. He was wearing ripped and old clothing, his pants sagging practically to his knees and his collar popped. He had a snide grin on his face. Haru turned to see what the men were looking at now.

It was Rin’s dorm mate, Nitori. He walked past with an armful of books and his head down. Rin called out, “hey pussy! You come around here for a beating?” The men around Rin laughed, but Nitori just bowed his head and walked faster.  
“What happened to Rin?” Haru asked.  
Nagisa made a tsking noise and shook his head. “Poor Rin dropped out of swimming at a really young age. With no driving force in his life and no friends, he turned to crime. Instead of going to Australia, he joined a street gang.”

Haru stared with wide eyes at the group for a moment before Nagisa continued, “we could watch this until Rin goes to rob a convenience store later, but I think this is boring, so lets go” He grabbed Haru again and the fog appeared again.

It cleared and they were in another place. Haru instantly recognized it as the field outside of Iwatobi High. Before them stood Rei and the man who must be the track team coach.  
“Ryugazaki! Why would you join the track team if you can’t perform in any of the sports?”  
“I’m sorry sir, I-”  
“Shut up! You lost us in the relay, and now you can’t even run in practice? I don’t want you to apologize, I want you to quit!”  
“What?” Rei looked taken aback, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping open. Behind his surprise, Haru could see... fear? Disappointment?  
“Get changed, Rei. I’m throwing you off the team.”

“Poor Rei!” Nagisa said exclaimed as Rei slumped away. “Kicked off of every team. Even the mathletes threw him out for being too distracted during tournaments! This guy doesn’t belong anywhere, and he doesn’t feel like he can fit in. It’s just too bad there isn’t a swim team to join!” Nagisa and Haru watched Rei enter the school before Nagisa turned away. “Well, let’s move on to the next person... me!”

The fog appeared again and then cleared away. They were in the school now, and the first person Haru laid eyes on was Nagisa. Not the angel Nagisa... instead, it was the one stumbling down the halls.  
“Hey, shrimp! I told you you weren’t allowed down this hall.” A boy said to Nagisa. He was huge and bulky, his face covered in spots and his shirt tight on his wide belly.  
“This is the only way to my class- ah!” Nagisa’s words were cut off with a cry. The boy had shoved him into a locker, his face slamming against the cold metal.  
“Looks like the tiny new kid in town isn’t so popular,” angel Nagisa sighed. “He gets beat up and picked on everyday. He’s too small to defend himself and there are no friends to protect him.”

The big kid picked him up and pushed him against the other. He punched Nagisa in the in the face, once, twice. The second time, he pulled his hand away and blood was smeared on Nagisa’s nose. Haru stepped forward, his fists clenched and his eyes narrowed slightly, ready to intervene. Angel Nagisa quickly grabbed Haru’s arm and pulled him back. “Hey, Haru. This isn’t real, remember? No point in trying to defend me... him. They can’t see you, anyway.”

Smoke surrounded them again and then disappeared again. This time they were in a different kind of place... a grassy hill, out in the open. A grave sat before them.  
“Tachibana Makoto  
Loved by all  
RIP”

Haru and Nagisa stared at it silently for a few seconds, Haru in horror and Nagisa in mourning. Finally, Haru said slowly, “Nagisa... is this what happens to Makoto?”  
“Yep!” Nagisa said, the cheeriness of his voice grating on Haru’s nerves. “Poor Makoto... never got into swimming, never met you or Nagisa or Rei on Rin. He fell into a bad crowd, the only one that let him in. He drank too much one time and got into his car, tried driving home by himself. He got into a car crash. He didn’t make it, Haru.” Nagisa looked at Haru, sympathy in his voice.  
“No. Makoto is too responsible for this to happen. He’d never drink and drive, or drink at all.”  
Nagisa shrugged. “Maybe your Makoto wouldn’t. But this Makoto who grew up with no real friends... he did everything on a whim and was irresponsible to the end. He didn’t have anyone to look after him, or anyone to look after. He grew up a completely different way than your’s did with you. This Makoto had a good heart, but he was misguided.”  
Haru stepped away from the grave. “No. No, this isn’t true. This would never happen to Makoto.”  
“You have to understand, Haru-”  
“No! I don’t want to. Take me back. Take me back to my own home. I don’t want to be here anymore.” He took another step away.  
“But I still haven’t shown you what happens to Gou, or Makoto’s family-”  
“I don’t care!” Haru yelled. “Take me back!”

Without a word, Nagisa stepped forward and grasped Haru’s hand. The smoke appeared again, but this time it was darker, blacker. Haru closed his eyes, the world spinning around him.  
He woke up in his bed with a start. His blankets were on the floor and he was covered with a clammy sweat. Haru looked towards the window, but there was Nagisa was gone.

It had been a dream. But it was also real.

Haru wasted no time. He pulled on a warmer shirt and a sweater before running down stairs. He hurriedly pulled on a jacket, a hat, and boots. He was outside in the freezing air quickly, the wind whipped icy snowflakes at him as he plowed through the snow. It took him only six minutes to reach Makoto’s house- a record time for him.

He knocked on the door instead of ringing the doorbell, as he knew the doorbell would wake the twins up. Even though it was probably around 3:00 AM, Haru knew that Makoto would answer the door. He was a surprisingly light sleeper.

Haru was right. After only knocking on the door a few times, a tired Makoto pulled the door open. His pajamas were green stripped and he was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Haru? What are you doing here?”  
Haru pulled Makoto’s face towards his own, resting his cold hands against Makoto’s skin. “I’m sorry, Makoto. What I said was a mistake.” He tugged Makoto’s chin down and touched his lips with his own, tenderly kissing him.  
“You know I need you too, right Haru?” Makoto whispered to Haru’s lips.  
“Yeah,” Haru replied. “I do.”


End file.
